Atkins Day One

So...it's been a while since I've done Insanity. Let's be honest - I despise Shaun T, and I mute him when I do his workouts. But I joined a gym (Planet Fitness) in November, and was doing really well for a bit, but then A Christmas Carol happened. And so...I haven't been doing much working out for a while.

I keep telling myself I'm going to get back exercising, but I haven't. And my body has suffered as a result. My current weight is...gulp...172.6 lbs., 19.9% body fat. That's more than I've ever weighed - sheesh. Now in my defense, once you get past a certain age (early 20s-ish), your body stops producing muscle naturally. Because muscle helps burn fat, that means that if you do the same thing you've always done, you'll naturally gain weight. It's just a fact of life. You have to do even MORE than you used to in order to stay in shape.

So looking at my stats from October 2010, I was at 159.8 lbs., 14.9% body fat. Using some good old-fashioned math, that means 23.8 lbs. of my body were fat. Now, at 172.6 lbs. and 19.9% body fat, 34.26 lbs. of my body are fat. Now, ignoring that there have been some fluctuations in the past 14 months, that means that I've gained 12.8 lbs. since October 2010, 10.5 lbs. of which were fat. I've also gained 2 pounds of muscle as well (that's good news). :)

So I'm doing something I did before - the Atkins diet. I've had some contentions with people about this - people even saying it's "of the devil" because it doesn't go along with the Word of Wisdom. But I'm sure eating dessert with every meal and eating tons of pasta and bread wasn't what the Lord had in mind either.

But anyway, I don't want to get into any other debates about it. The point is, I did the Phase 1 of Atkins for two weeks and lost 10 pounds. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, you eat a TON of vegetables (at least 6 cups of raw veggies a day), and about 4-6 oz. of protein (even vegans can do Atkins - it doesn't have to be meat) with each meal. The idea is to reprogram your body from burning and storing carbs to burning stored fat (called ketosis).

I was inspired by the documentary Fat Head (watch it on Netflix), which is a response to Super Size Me. The guy eats at fast food for a month and actually loses weight, body fat, and increases his overall health stats by limiting his carbohydrate intake to less than 100 g per day. I'll be limiting mine to less than 20 g per day, and drastically increasing my vegetable intake.

Phase 1 (where you limit your carbs this much) only usually lasts 2-3 weeks, but can go longer if desired. I'm going to try to stick with it until I'm down to 150 lbs. My guess is it will take about a month - hopefully I can withstand the temptation of delicious breads, pasta, rice, and desserts during that time. You might think eating only meat is a dream come true, but really, all you want during that time is french fries, or a baked potato, or some pasta, or a cookie...

Anyway, today is day one of my journey. Once I hit 150 (or level out on weight loss), I'm going to increase my carbohydrate intake, and head back to the gym. Today's menu:

Breakfast: 3 strips of bacon, 1/2 C. mushrooms, 2 eggs, 1 T. parmesan cheese (291 calories, 3.1 net carbs)

Snack: 24 roasted almonds (166 calories, 2.3 net carbs)

Lunch: 2 oz. ham, 2 oz. turkey, 2 C. lettuce, 1 oz. mozarella cheese, 1/2 C. mushrooms, 1 T. balsalmic vinegar, 1 t. olive oil (441 calories, 5.1 net carbs)

Snack: 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese, 1 T. coconut oil (347.5 calories, .7 carbs)

Dinner: hambuger patty, lettuce, 3 strips bacon, 1 T. low carb ketchup (424 calories, 1.6 carbs)

To drink: Water!

Total: 1669.5 calories, 12.8 carbs (about 4 C. vegetables - going to need to increase that for tomorrow)